Our series of weekly NASCAR driver interviews continues with Ryan Blaney, who is splitting his season between the Sprint Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series. He has two Xfinity wins and a Truck win in 2015.

Q: If NASCAR allowed you to listen to music while you were racing, would you want to?

A: That’s tough. There are a couple tracks where I wouldn’t mind doing it, like at Talladega or Daytona. Sometimes we get some really long runs, and if we get single-file or something, you kind of get a little bored. There are laps sometimes when people don’t say anything (on the team radio).

But those would be the only two races, and only for periods of time. I’d like to switch it on and off. That’d be nice.

Would you go with pump-up music or calming music?

It would depend, to be honest with you. If we were single-file in a line, I’d go with some calm country music or something. If it was time to go at the end of a plate race, I’d put on some metal or something and get you pumped up and in the mood.

Q: Where did your first paycheck come from?

A: I was driving for my dad (Dave Blaney) in Late Models. That was my first one, when I was 13 or 14 and he’d give me a little bit of the purse that we made while racing. I’ve really never had any other job other than racing. By the time I could start working on cars, I was racing them – I was 8 when I started racing. So I’ve never had the opportunity to get a paycheck from anywhere else.

Q: Who is an autograph you got as a kid that seemed to be a big deal to you at the time?

A: Tony Stewart has been a friend of our family’s for a long time, and I remember him coming up to Sharon Speedway – the dirt track my dad owns. He signed my shirt, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. That was really the only one I vividly remember getting, because I never asked – I was always in the garage and kind of focused on my dad.

A: I’m not much of a beach guy, so I’d rather go somewhere like the Swiss Alps. I think that’d be really cool – spend a week up there snowboarding or something. That’d be awesome to visit. I’d also love to go see Bathurst (in Australia) and watch that race.

Q: Do people ever accuse you of being addicted to your phone?

A: Yeah. All the time. I’ve gotten better than what I used to be, to be honest with you. Last year I was really bad about it. I’d get out of the car, and if it was a long change (during practice) or something, I’d get on my phone and look at Twitter and see what other people were saying.

My dad actually got on me one time about that. Since then, I’ve kind of been off it during practice because you don’t focus as much, I feel like.

Q: If a genie promised you a Cup championship in exchange for never being able to do your favorite hobby again, would you accept that offer?

A: Oh yeah, for sure. I see a lot of people choose the championship on your questions, and you can’t blame them. That’s kind of the obvious answer because if you’re a passionate race car driver, that’s your ultimate goal. You can find new hobbies. It’s a lot harder to win a championship than to find something different to do.

Nothing really big. Probably video games or something like that. I can give up video games and not play them for the rest of my life if it means a Cup championship.

I don’t know, man. There are a lot of good games coming out.

I know! I’m really looking forward to them, actually. In the offseason there are going to be a lot of video games being played, I’ll tell you that.

Q: What’s your preferred method of dealing with an angry driver after a race?

A: I’d like to try to reach out to them as quickly as possible, whether it’s in person or a call or a text. You’d rather do it in person, but it’s hard to wait until the next week if you don’t see them (right after the race).

A good example is Clint Bowyer at New Hampshire earlier this year. I got loose underneath him and we kind of got into it and got into the wall a little bit. And I wasn’t racing Cup for the next two weeks, so I probably wasn’t going to see him.

I didn’t want to call him, because the (cell) service was terrible in New Hampshire. I thought it would be worse to call him and drop the call in the middle of our talk than to send him a text. Texting somebody is kind of the last thing I want to do, but I had to do it in that situation.

Q: Do you ever get mistaken for another driver or celebrity?

A: All the time, yeah. It’s unbelievable, to be honest with you. I get Trevor Bayne so much when I’m in my 21 (Wood Brothers) firesuit. It’s at least five to eight times a weekend I get called “Trevor Bayne.” Sometimes I’ll sign a Trevor Bayne autograph. (Laughs)

I also get mixed up with Chase (Elliott) sometimes – I don’t know how – and also Ryan Truex. People always mix me up. I don’t know why.

Q: If you had a time machine and you could travel to any year and race, where would you go?

A: I’d like to go back to the 70s and 80s, like when (David) Pearson and (Cale) Yarborough were in the 21 car. Those style cars were so cool and it was so much more relaxed and open back then. There weren’t as many rules, and you kind of ran what you brought to the racetrack. That left teams and cars so much different than each other.

Now there are so many commitments on the drivers’ side like keeping sponsors happy, and the politics are so much different than they were back then. I just feel like that was a simpler time. It’s fun now, but I feel like it was probably a lot more fun to go to the racetrack. Guys were just carefree about it back then.

Q: Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?

A: That’s tough. If I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, I’d want to be invisible. But now I’d want to fly. It’d just be so convenient to get to the racetracks, and after the race, you don’t have to worry about traffic or anything like that.

Q: I’ve been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. The last interview was with Austin Dillon, and he wanted to know: “If you met a girl for the first time and you had the option to text her or call her, what are you going to do? And what would you say?”

A: Wow, he got deep with that one. (Laughs) That depends if I think it’s love at first sight or something, like if I think I’m going to marry this girl.

Plus, it depends how we met and how much conversation we had. Like if we were hanging out all night or something, I’d probably call her in the morning. Calling is a lot more intimate and it means a lot more, I feel like. People nowadays, they always text each other and it doesn’t mean as much. So I’d probably give her a call and see what she has to say.

Q: And do you have a question I can ask the next driver? It’s scheduled to be John Wes Townley.

A: Ask him if we all get a free Zaxby’s chicken card for him winning in Vegas.

Q: Finally, how did this interview go on a scale of 1-10?

A: I think it went good. I’m going to go with about a 9. I love reading these; I look forward to them all the time no matter who it is. It’s pretty neat how it varies so much with different drivers.